December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month

Drinking and driving puts everything on the line: your freedom, your reputation, your bank account, your life – and the lives of others.

Driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08% or more is illegal and greatly increases the risk of serious injury and even death.

If you’re under 21, driving with a BAC over 0.0% – that’s ZERO – is an automatic DWI.

Commercial drivers – a BAC of 0.04% or more will land you in jail.

The effects from a DWI can last a lifetime. Court costs and lawyer fees can put you into deep debt. You could lose your license, and any jail time you have to serve affects your work and family. You may also have to perform community service. And higher car insurance rates will hit you in the wallet on a regular basis.

Driving While Impaired Facts

-50 to 75 percent of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license.

-an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest

-the rate of drunk driving is highest among 21 to 25 year olds (23.4 percent).

-only time will sober a person up. Drinking strong coffee, exercising or taking a cold shower will not help

-every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.

-drunk driving costs the United States $199 billion a year.

-on average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime

-drunk driving costs each adult in the United States almost $800 per year

-in 2012, 29.1 million people admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol – that’s more than the population of Texas

-every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.

-in 2013, 10,076 people died in drunk driving crashes – one every 52 minutes – and 290,000 were injured in drunk driving crashes.

-drunk driving involvement in fatal crashes in 2011 was 4.5 times higher at night than during the day (36 versus 8 percent

-in 2011, 15 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes during the week were drunk, compared to 31 percent on weekends

-in 2013, a total of 1,149 children 14 and younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those 1,149 fatalities, 200 (17%) occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes. Out of those 200 deaths, 121 (61%) were occupants of vehicles with drivers who had bacs of .08 or higher, and another 29 children (15%) were pedestrians or pedal cyclists struck by drivers with bacs of .08 or higher

-impairment is not determined by the type of drink, but rather by the amount of alcohol drunk over time

-a standard drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, which contain the same amount of alcohol

-the average person metabolizes alcohol at the rate of about one drink per hour

-males were more likely than females (15.1 vs. 7.9 percent) to drive drunk

-in fatal crashes in 2011, the highest percentage of drunk drivers was for drivers ages 21 to 24 (32 percent), followed by ages 25 to 34 (30 percent) and 35 to 44 (24 percent

-over 1.2 million drivers were arrested in 2011 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics

-each day, people drive drunk almost 300,000 times, but fewer than 4,000 are arrested

-about one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of drunk driving are repeat offenders

Our Services:

The attorneys at GAY JACKSON & McNALLY, LLP have years of experience representing motorists that have been injured or killed by impaired motorists. In fact, at any given point in time, approximately 50% of our personal injury cases involve a driver under the influence.

When you have been in an accident and it was not your fault, whether the at fault driver was impaired or not, GAY JACKSON & McNALLY, LLP is here to provide you with the very best possible legal representation and advice. If you need representation for a personal injury or wrongful death, call 919-269-2234 or email darren_jackson@bellsouth.net.